Stanislavski Studies

Practice, Legacy, and Contemporary Theater

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Nikolai Demidov—Russian Theater's Best-kept

Secret

Andrei Malaev-Babel

To cite this article: Andrei Malaev-Babel (2015) Nikolai Demidov—Russian Theater's Best-kept
Secret, Stanislavski Studies, 3:1, 69-81, DOI: 10.1080/20567790.2015.11428612

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Nikolai Demidov – Russian
Theater’s Best-kept Secret
Andrei Malaev-Babel

ABSTRACT  The article is dedicated to the creative heritage and biography of

the outstanding Russian theater pedagogue – a student and closest colleague of
Konstantin Stanislavski – director Nikolai Vasilievich Demidov (1884–1953). For the
first time, in the English-speaking world, the article provides an introduction to the
fundamental ideas behind Demidov’s teachings, and to his educational methods
of actor cultivation, known as “The Demidov School.” Demidov is credited with
developing an internal organic technique that demystifies inspiration and puts an
actor in touch with his own creative process. Demidov’s discoveries in the realm of
creativity attracted the attention of the leading Russian psychologists, physiologists
and biologists, as they open a new chapter in the science of the creative process. In
addition to the technique of authentic “living onstage,” Demidov also developed “the
psycho-technique of the affective actor [tragedian],” which teaches the actor the art of
navigating heightened emotional attitudes.

Keywords: creative psychology, actor’s internal organic technique, actor-tragedian,

Nikolai Demidov’s School of Theater, history of twentieth-century Russian theater,
Moscow Art Theater, Stanislavski, actor-training

Introduction
The legacy of Russian theater teacher, director and scholar Nikolai Demidov
(1884–1953) compares with the groundbreaking revelations of men and women
of science. The Demidov School of Theater brought forth the primacy of creative
perception in the actor’s art. By doing so, it invited a new vision of theater – just
as Galileo and Copernicus’ discovery of heliocentrism introduced a new view
of the universe. For Galileo and Copernicus to proclaim that the sun does not
revolve around the earth was a risky step. Demidov (2004: 262), who lived in
the era of the “governmentalized” Stanislavski System, took serious risks when
he challenged well-established beliefs by arguing that:

Stanislavski Studies, Volume 3, Issue 1, pp. 69–82. © Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 2015

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Andrei Malaev-Babel

a different law of stage behavior has now developed and formulated itself: ac-
tion does not constitute the primary cause of our emotional state; rather our
perception should be considered the primary cause, both of our action and of our
emotional state.

Just as Galileo had been forbidden from advocating heliocentrism, Demidov suf-
fered serious consequences for his teachings on creative perception. In Stalinist
Russia, Demidov, who disagreed with several aspects of the Stanislavski System,
was persecuted and even forced into a self-imposed exile to Siberia. The mo-
nopoly, held by several influential Stanislavski disciples, prevented Demidov’s
complete heritage from surfacing for over half a century following Stalin’s death.
It took Russia this long to discover one of its most important theater prac-
titioners and theoreticians, as well as one of the three original teachers of the
Stanislavski System. According to Meyerhold’s witness (as quoted in Aneichik
1992: 47), Stanislavski himself, at the time of his death, considered Demidov
“his only student, who understands the System.” The first head of the Moscow
Art Theater’s School, the first editor of An Actor’s Work and the head of the
Fourth Studio of MAT, Demidov was a key figure of twentieth-century Russian
theater. Without his witness account, and without the awareness of his methods,
one cannot fully comprehend the development of Stanislavski’s views on ac-
tor training, or the creative methods of his students and collaborators, such as
Yevgeny Vakhtangov, Michael Chekhov and others.
Demidov’s heritage contains innovative theory and practice. The Demidov
School allows student-actors, from the first day of their training, to access the
depths of their intuitive creativity. Demidov developed the Organic Acting
Technique, its pedagogy and the directorial approach toward implement-
ing it in rehearsal and performance practices. While fully subscribing to the
Stanislavskian principles of truth, and to his School of Experiencing, Demidov
avoided analytical and imperative tendencies inherent in the System, as well
as its division of the creative process into separate elements. Contrary to the
System, the Demidov School of Theater implements creative synthesis and the
workings of the subconscious – from the first moment of training and/or rehearsal
and performance work. Moreover, Demidov’s work went beyond Stanislavskian
“verisimilitude of feelings.” It inspires “the truth of passions,” always at the heart
of the secrets of great tragedians, thus elevating the actor into heightened spheres
of creativity.1

Nikolai Demidov’s Life and Heritage

In 1884, Nikolai Demidov was born in the town of Ivanovo-Voznesensk, the
son of Vasily Demidov – a playwright, respected by Nikolai Ostrovsky, and an
artistic director and founder of the Ivanovo-Voznesensk Popular Theater. From
an early age, Nikolai was immersed in theater life.

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 Nikolai Demidov – Russian Theater’s Best-kep Secret

As a child, Demidov suffered from debilitating illness that confined him

to a wheelchair. The boy attempted suicide, yet, as a result of the mysterious
coincidence (or perhaps the inevitability of fate), he emerged out of the ordeal
completely unharmed. Demidov searched for a way out of his seemingly hope-
less situation and developed his own set of gymnastic exercises, the regular use
of which not only led to his recovery but, subsequently, to European records in
weightlifting. Having successfully completed high school, Demidov enrolled in
1907 in the Moscow University’s School of Medicine, where he concentrated on
psychiatry.
Beginning in his early years, Demidov exhibited unorthodox thinking and
organizational skills, as well as the ability to see things from an unusual perspec-
tive. At the age of twenty, Demidov established an Ivanovo-Voznesensk branch
of the St Petersburg Athletic Society. There he developed and successfully applied
his first program of individualized physical and spiritual training for athletes.
Friendship with Stanislavski’s closest associate, Leopold Sulerzhitsky, led to
Demidov’s introduction to Stanislavski in 1907. Their acquaintance developed
into a close collaboration that lasted for more than thirty years.
After graduating from the university in 1913, Demidov started practicing
at the Pletnyov Clinic in Moscow, specializing in psychiatry. He studied yoga
and homeopathy. The legendary Russian doctor Pyotr Badmaev introduced
Demidov to Tibetan medicine. It is Demidov who is responsible for the intro-
duction of yoga principles to the teachings of Stanislavski.
Demidov was present at the birth, formation and development of the
System. He assisted Stanislavski in gathering and organizing scientific data and
analyzing the results of his experimentation and research. As early as 1911,
Demidov supplied Stanislavski with detailed accounts of his own experiments
that he conducted with his brother Konstantin, a noted actor. These original
experiments in the application of yoga and other spiritual teachings to acting
established the foundation of the Demidov School. They are featured in the
fifth and final book of the Demidov heritage, dedicated to the so-called “higher
aerobatics.” Among other discoveries Demidov shared with Stanislavski in the
early 1910s are the techniques of preserving freshness and spontaneity in the
actor’s speech and its internal imagery, as well as discoveries on the workings of
the creative subconscious.
Stanislavski had grown to appreciate Demidov’s many unique gifts: his
knowledge – since childhood – of the theater world, his diverse yet fundamen-
tal education, his scientific and philosophical mind. Demidov’s methodical
thinking, as well as his bright and vivid imagination, coupled with his gifts for
research and teaching, have proven quite useful to Stanislavski’s experimenta-
tion. In 1911, Demidov began working with Stanislavski as his assistant, and in
1919, at the insistence of Stanislavski, he left the medical profession and devoted
himself to the theater.

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Andrei Malaev-Babel

In 1926, Stanislavski gave the following reference to Demidov:

I have known Nikolai Demidov for 15 years. This is a selfless enthusiast, and
a man full of genuine love and dedication to the art. From the time we met,
he became so interested in theater and, in particular, the internal (psychologi-
cal) acting technique, that he entirely devoted himself to art. All these years,
he has been helping me develop this rich and complex aspect of the actor’s
work. At the moment, I think, he is one of the few who knows the “system”
in theory and practice. He has spent four years in my studio as an opera direc-
tor and teacher. For two years, he led the Moscow Art Theater School2 (after
Sulerzhitsky and Vakhtangov), cultivating actors and conducting classes in the
“system.” (Demidov 2009: 460)

Demidov was also one of the first three original teachers (next to Sulerzhitsky and
Vakhtangov) of the Stanislavski system, trained and recognized by Stanislavski
himself. The results Demidov achieved with the Moscow Art Theater students
made Stanislavski (1999: 167) proclaim, “Our school, prepared by Demidov,
must carry God in it.”
The other head of the Moscow Art Theater, Vladimir Nemirovich-
Danchenko, also expressed his views on the significance of Demidov and his
teachings. In 1929, Nemirovich wrote:
Everything we have discovered at the Moscow Art Theater, has been broadly
developed in Demidov’s teachings. Besides, having used our observations and
discoveries as his foundation, Demidov, nevertheless, did not restrict himself to
mere development and improvement of what he received at the MAT; he has
been constantly moving forward, and he still does, finding things new – things
that will enrich the theater schools of the future and the very science and theory
of the psychology of the creative process. (Demidov 2009: 462)

Moscow Kamerny Theater’s artistic director Alexander Tairov referred to

Demidov as a “rare teacher-pedagogue, capable of awakening love toward true
art within the actor and teaching the actors genuine, virtuoso inner technique”
(Demidov 2009: 461).
The Demidov legacy was clearly established in 1910, when he began his
experiments in the heightened spheres of the actors’ creativity. However, the
foundation of the Demidov School, its basics, had to wait for over a decade.
In 1922, while in his tenure as the head of the Moscow Art Theater School,
Demidov developed a new type of stage études. By the early 1930s, along with
his students, he had an opportunity to test the new technique with several groups
of young actors. Stanislavski, when presented with the results of a two-month
Demidov training course, asked Demidov to serve as an editor of his book, An
Actor’s Work.
Under Demidov’s influence, Stanislavski significantly reworked his book,
most notably adding the last chapter, “The Subconscious and the Actor’s Creative

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State.” However, failing health and other external circumstances interfered with
Stanislavski’s rewrites. Growing impatient with Demidov’s perfectionism and
high demands, Stanislavski completed his book with another editor. In the in-
troduction to An Actor’s Work, Stanislavski wrote:

N.V. Demidov helped me tremendously both in implementing the “system”

and in creating this book. He gave me valuable suggestions, materials, exam-
ples; he shared with me his opinions on the book and exposed my mistakes.
(Stanislavski 1954: 8)

In the 1930s, Demidov began to put his own discoveries into writing. At the
time of Demidov’s death in 1953, his literary heritage consisted of five unpub-
lished books: The Art of the Actor – Its Present and Future; Actor Types; The Art of
Living Onstage; Creative Artistic Process Onstage; and The Psycho-technique of the
Affective Actor [Tragedian].
In addition to working on his five books, Demidov remained one of
Moscow’s most popular acting teachers. Between the early 1920s and early
1940s, he served as a lead teacher and director at prominent institutions such
as Bolshoi Theater Opera Studio, Stanislavski Opera Studio, Moscow Kamerny
Theater and its school, Moscow Conservatory, Nemirovich-Danchenko Music
Theater, Stanislavski Opera Theater, Maly Theater’s Shchepkin School and
Glazynov Music School.
In 1941, Demidov combined two groups of his own students (from the
Maly Theater School and Glazynov Music School) to stage a performance of
Gorky’s play, The Last Ones. The triumphant premiere, promising the creation of
a new theater company, took place on June 21, 1941 – one day before the Soviet
Union entered the Second World War.
Despite the success of the Gorky play, and Stanislavski’s recognition of
the Demidov School, Demidov’s fate in Soviet Russia was tragic, follow-
ing Stanislavski’s death and the country’s entry into the Second World War.
Stanislavski’s disciples, those in the positions of power, felt threatened by
Demidov’s independence and his innovations, which seemingly contradicted
the Stanislavski System. They used their authority to get Demidov fired from
the numerous Moscow theaters and schools where he directed and taught, and
they succeeded in erasing Demidov’s name from the history of Russian theater
for over sixty years.
During the Second World War, Demidov evacuated from Moscow to the
Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic, where he became the artistic director
of the National Finnish Theater. It is there that Demidov created his directo-
rial masterpiece – Nora, based on Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. After a brief return to
Moscow, from 1945 to 1946, Demidov once again was forced into exile to the
north, to Sakhalin Island. Demidov’s health could not withstand the harsh con-
ditions of the far north, and in 1948 he left Sakhalin for Buryat-Mongol Soviet

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Republic, where he headed the National Buryat-Mongol Theater and its school,
as well as the Buryat-Mongol School of Musical Theater.
Demidov’s health continued to deteriorate, and in 1949 he was forced to
return to Moscow. Bedridden, he continued to work on his manuscripts, while
making futile attempts to publish at least one of his five books – The Art of Living
Onstage. Nikolai Demidov died in Moscow on September 8, 1953, leaving it to
his disciples, present and future, to publish his books and to carry forward his
School.
Among Demidov’s students and followers are some of the leading actors,
teachers and scholars of the twentieth-century Russian theater, such as Nikolai
Plotnikov (Vakhtangov Theater), Boris Livanov (Moscow Art Theater) and
Maria Knebel (GITIS). The first abridged edition of Demidov’s manual, The
Art of Living Onstage, appeared in 1965, during the period of Khrushchev’s
“thaw.” It was secretly edited by Demidov’s assistant Vladimir Bogachov and
introduced by Livanov and Knebel. The publication of the near-complete four-
volume Demidov heritage, however, became possible only due to the efforts
of Demidov’s close student, and one of St Petersburg’s leading actors, Oleg
Okulevich, and his wife – noted St Petersburg scholar Dr Margarita Laskina.
The publication of Nikolai Demidov’s heritage, edited by Laskina, took place
in St Petersburg between 2004 and 2009. With this publication, the theatrical
community in Russia has become aware of Demidov’s crucial contribution to
the art of theater and of the groundbreaking nature of his School.

The Demidov Literary Heritage

Demidov had a gift for presenting complex issues in a simple manner. An im-
peccable sense of composition helped Demidov to balance theory and practice.
Demidov’s simplicity of presentation never resulted in simplification of the sub-
jects he explored, making his works equally interesting for scholars, experienced
theater practitioners and beginner students. Finally, since Demidov’s writings
deal with the very laws of creativity, they are of interest to readers from various
creative fields, such as psychology, sports, music, literature etc.
The first volume in the series of Demidov’s five books is titled The Art of
the Actor: Its Present and Future. This book outlines the guiding principles of
the Demidov School, while setting it against the backdrop of contemporary
theater practices of the period. In the first part of the book, Demidov analyzes
the current state of theatrical art, including those tendencies that block the path
for the theater of the future, such as falsification of artistic truth and dilettantism
of the director and actor, especially when it comes to their knowledge of the
subconscious creative process. The Art of the Actor provides a practical expla-
nation of terms, such as theatrical truth, “organic creative nature,” naturalism

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 Nikolai Demidov – Russian Theater’s Best-kep Secret

and “experiencing.” These terms, often featured in Stanislavski’s teachings, are

significantly clarified under Demidov’s pen.
The book draws parallels between the art of theater and other art forms,
such as literature, music, sculpture etc. Demidov outlines both differences and
similarities between the creative processes of the actor and those of a visual art-
ist, writer or musician. The book also addresses the issue of a higher mission of
theatrical art, outlining the ideals of artistic perfection as they have manifested
throughout the history of theater and other arts. Among these ideals, Demidov
singles out truth, beauty and a desire to achieve a profound, life-changing expe-
rience for one’s contemporaries. Such are the forces that, according to Demidov,
initially bring all artists to the theater.
Demidov concludes his first book with the discussion of “cognitive automa-
tisms.” He describes the mechanism of automatism in everyday life, science and
technology, as well as in creativity. Thus, Demidov lays the foundation for his
school of actor training, which utilizes cognitive automatism for the transform-
ing of an actor’s everyday (mundane) reflexes into creative reflexes.
Demidov’s second book is titled Actor Types. For the first time in the history
of theatrical thought, Demidov identifies and discusses four predominant types
of actors:

1. Imitator
2. Emotional (or Emotionally willful)
3. Affective (Tragedian)
4. Rationalist

Demidov’s book reveals how the existence of these actor types led to the forma-
tion of four prevailing trends in the performing arts and the associated pedagogy.
Demidov makes a detailed analysis of the creative process and of the qualities
ingrained in each of the four types. At the same time, Demidov demonstrates
the advantages of the Passionate (or Affective) Actor over other types. Moreover,
Demidov argues that a precise technique exists behind the intuitive, subconscious
process of a tragedian, and that it can be developed through specific training.
This statement is especially important, as it challenges the commonly accepted
notion that the internal psychological mechanism of a tragedian (“trust your
gut” kind of actor) is unreliable and dependent on the whims of inspiration.
Truly revolutionary is Demidov’s discovery that the subconscious technique of
an actor-tragedian is accessible, to some degree, to all actors who possess the
basic qualities inherent in this creative type and who are willing to work hard to
further develop these qualities.
Demidov’s classification goes far beyond the sphere of theatrical art and is
valuable for members of any creative profession, as well as for all those interested
in creative psychology. As for people of theater, Actor Types is an indispensable

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aid for actors in choosing a school harmonious with their unique creative type,
and/or in choosing their personalized path in independent training.
The third book of the heritage, The Art of Living Onstage, is the most practi-
cal of the five Demidov books. It is a detailed manual for the first year of training
in the Demidov School. The book outlines the first-year’s acting curriculum,
while carefully guiding the teacher through the labyrinth of the training process.
The Art of Living Onstage outlines the trajectory of Demidov’s “étude technique”
as it develops throughout the first year of training: from simple text études fa-
cilitating students’ first, spontaneous impulses to the elaborate études featuring
fixed, given circumstances. The latter create a bridge to Demidov’s scene study
approach. The book also features individual exercises and “scales” aimed at de-
veloping specific qualities such as creative freedom, the feeling of truth, sensory
and kinetic responsiveness and acute receptivity.
The Art of Living Onstage features unique insights into the field of creative
psychology and offers a description of the subconscious creative process, includ-
ing the hidden mechanisms. An abridged version of this book appeared in 1965
at the insistence of noted Soviet scientists – psychologists and physiologists – a
half-century ahead of the release of Demidov’s complete heritage.
Demidov’s book Creative Artistic Process Onstage, fourth in the series, is
dedicated to the organic character facilitation techniques. It introduces and ex-
plores an original aspect of the Demidov School, such as the “embryo” of the
role and its organic development. The book deals with the process of creative
transformation and with the formation of the character, as well as with the dia-
lectical relationship between the character and the actor. Creative Artistic Process
Onstage provides a practical explanation of the duality of the actor’s life onstage,
thus demystifying the “paradox of an actor.”
Of special interest in the book are the chapters such as “Actor and Author”
and “Actor and Director.” A large part of Demidov’s study focuses on the philo-
sophical and theoretical aspects of the actor’s creativity. At the same time, the
book also addresses issues of the actor’s virtuosity. It speaks of Synthesis and
the Arc of the Character and the Play, positioning the actor’s creativity and the
formation of character as a complex yet indivisible organic process.
Demidov’s fifth and final book is The Psycho-technique of the Affective
[Passionate] Actor [Tragedian]. It is dedicated to the Demidov technique of
“higher aerobatics” and focuses on the theater of heightened emotions, charac-
teristic of the great master thespians, such as Pavel Mochalov, Eleonora Duse,
Tommaso Salvini, Maria Ermolova, Vera Komissarzhevskaya and Sandro Moissi.
This in-depth discussion of the art of the tragedian introduces, for the first
time in acting scholarship, principles and techniques making up the creative process
of the passionate actor. In its introductory part, the book examines the phenom-
enon of creative “play” – in life and in theater. In addition to that, the first part of
the book describes the specific type of creative research or study (of the text and

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the role) defined by Demidov as “emotional synthesis.” The Psycho-technique also

reveals the importance of primitive biological sensations in the art of a tragedian
– a physiological basis for heightened emotions. The book describes in detail the
phenomenon of psychological and cognitive “split,” typical of the creative process
of every experiencing actor and of the passionate actor (tragedian) in particular.
In the book, Demidov examines the prerequisites for entering the highest
spheres of creativity, including cultures of calm and passivity as well as the tech-
niques of “subconscious perception” and “psychic breath.” The Psycho-technique
of the Affective Actor concludes with an unprecedented study of the creative rela-
tionship between the actor and the audience.

The Demidov School of Theater

Most existing training methods focus on the material of the play and on
communicating to the actors ideas behind the character and the play, while
teaching them how to play a particular role. In contrast to these methods, the
Demidov School chooses the actors and their creative instrument as its main fo-
cus. Methodical refinement of the actor’s internal instrument and the facilitation
of the subconscious flow of the actor’s creativity result, in the Demidov School,
in the organic creation of the play and the role. Demidov’s method of revealing and
developing talent is based on individual approaches to actors. Instead of interfer-
ing with actors’ processes, Demidov concentrates on the skillful removal of all
obstacles that impede a sound flow to their creativity. Once the solid creative
state has been restored, the role and the scene take care of themselves.
The main goal of the Demidov School lies in the cultivation of actors who
possess one of the paramount professional qualities – that of creative freedom.
This quality is essential to the harmonious implementation of the actor’s intui-
tive creative desires. When developed, the quality of creative freedom allows the
actors to unquestioningly obey their own spontaneous impulses, while freely
reacting to the given circumstances of the play, their partners’ behavior etc.
Demidov’s freedom leads to creative improvisation within the framework of
the play’s circumstances and the author’s/director’s concept. This improvisation
does not suffer from the strict framework of the given circumstances of the
role. Neither is it impeded by the production framework such as blockings, a
particular set, lighting design and so on.
The Demidov School offers the following means for the development of the
actor’s creative freedom:

1. Specially designed text études, utilized both in training and rehearsals;

2. A series of psychophysical exercises, both for classroom work and for home-
work; and
3. The actors’ scales, intended for a daily workout at home.

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Andrei Malaev-Babel

The introduction of daily psychological scales is a pioneering achievement.

His scales differ from the psychological exercises currently practiced in theater
schools. While the latter are grounded in emotional memory, or sensory recall,
Demidov’s scales are dedicated to fostering the actors’ ability to recognize and
facilitate their first, spontaneous creative reactions.
The other focus of the Demidov scales, as well as his text études, lies in the
development of the actor’s creative perception. Demidov’s pioneering exercises
stimulate and train for the stage the very mechanism of imaginative perception
– the actor’s creative “inhale.”
The Demidov Etudes seem to be the complete opposite of the Stanislavski-
type étude. In the Stanislavski-based improvisational exercise, the given circum-
stances (time, place, relationships between partners) are given, and so are the
tasks. Based on those, the actor proceeds to improvise the text of the étude. In
a Demidov étude, a simple text is given to the actors, and nothing more. This
text is designed in such a way that it is open to interpretation. It provides some
of the given circumstances, but does not firmly dictate characters, relationships,
place or time. The text is never discussed, but simply repeated several times by
the actors. The instructor then asks partners to forget the text, to “toss it out of
their heads,” and to remain empty for two to three seconds. The first impulse fol-
lowing the period of emptiness (be it thought, movement, sensation or mood)
is obeyed by the actors – they passively surrender to it and continue to do so for
the duration of the étude. What follows is a spontaneous improvisation of the
circumstances (relationships, time, space, facts etc.) embodied by the actors in
the course of the étude.
The actors’ ability to imaginatively perceive the circumstances, the partner
and the environment is cultivated in the Demidov études. Since the actual sur-
roundings and the partner become the chief source for the actor’s imagination,
the Demidov études – like no other exercises – open up the actors’ perceptive
channels and develop their reflex of creative perception. Active behavior and
emotional life occur in Demidov’s études just as they do in life – as reactions to
the perceived circumstances. In addition to Demidov’s discoveries on the pri-
macy of perception over action, his études also feature the signature “cultures”
of the Demidov School, which include “emptiness” and “passivity.”
Demidov’s discoveries in the realm of character development and facilita-
tion are equally original, if not revolutionary. As the only professionally trained
psychologist among the masters of Russian theater, he collected extensive data
on character development – both through his own research and by studying
significant actors of the School of Experiencing and their creative methods.
Demidov’s research and his data prove that actors form their characters immedi-
ately upon their first acquaintance with the part. Moreover, Demidov has proved
that the actor’s subconscious, intuitive perception of the role is always true to
its original source, as well as to the actor’s true creative individuality. Therefore,

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this first intuitive perception of the role inevitably continues to live in the actor.
The role’s impulses (thoughts, feelings, desires and actions) thus arise within the
actor immediately following the act of creative “inception.” Even in those cases
when the directors, or the actors themselves, adopt an analytically formed con-
cept that contradicts the intuitively formed “embryo” of the role, such a concept
comes into inevitable conflict with the actor’s intuitive process.
Actors might mobilize all their willpower in order to implement the intellec-
tual concept. In this case, however, the subconscious impulses, triggered by the
creative instinct, would continue developing in parallel with the forcefully in-
troduced concept. These spontaneous impulses appear, seemingly unnoticeable,
during rehearsals and performances in the form of parallel internal and external
currents, conflicting with those actions, psychologies and desires imposed (or
self-imposed) upon the actor. As a result, the audience perceives a psychophysi-
cal split in the actor; this split is greatly enlarged by the magnifying lens of the
stage. The inevitable presence of the intuitive process in the actor’s life onstage,
if ignored by the actor and director, leads the audience to the conclusion that the
actor is not fully truthful and/or lacks self-confidence.
The Demidov School of Theater rejects an intellectually designed predeter-
mined pattern of the role, as it cannot be successfully imposed upon the objec-
tively existing creative life of the actor. Instead, the Demidov organic technique
ensures conditions under which the psychological pattern of the role coincides
with the free creative life of the actor. Such a tactic, in the Demidov School,
causes the imaginary life of the character to absorb the actual life of the actor
(and vice versa), thus leading to genuine creative transformation.
In addition to this, the Demidov teachings and rehearsal practices contain
several effective methods of organic character facilitation. Among those, the
technique of “accumulating the character” is of most interest. Also of note are
Demidov’s methods of absorbing the character through subtle psychological
currents and receiving the character’s individual qualities via “psychic breath.”
The development of character relationships, in Demidov’s practices, is an
equally organic process. It includes methods of subconscious perception, as well
as techniques of perceiving the partner’s essence (accomplished through physical
contact and special breath techniques).
Pioneering rehearsal techniques introduced by Demidov include the étude
work on the past of the play (that is, character and relationships formed prior
to the start of the play). It supplies preparation for the actor’s life in the role, in-
cluding all of its emotional climaxes. Rehearsing the physiological life of the char-
acter, as a means of discovering the truth of a given scene, is yet another device
unique to Demidov. Also of great interest among Demidov rehearsal techniques
is his practice of introducing “outside” texts into the rehearsal process. Drawn
from other works by the play’s author, or from other corresponding materials,
these texts give the director and actor the means to cultivate the characters while

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Andrei Malaev-Babel

keeping the text of the play fresh and spontaneous for the actor. Needless to say,
all of these rehearsal practices are deeply connected with Demidov’s internal
technique of the actor-improviser.
Among the most significant innovations of the Demidov School are the
methods of facilitating heightened creative emotions. Demidov’s technique of
“psychic breath,” for example, is indispensable for work on Shakespeare and
other classics. This method is integrally linked with Demidov’s technique of
subconscious (non-analytical) perception. These subconscious perceptive means
allow the creative impression, received from the stage environment (given cir-
cumstances of the play, text, partner) to travel into the deepest layers of the
actor’s psyche. The method of psychic breath was created by Demidov based on
the “guild secrets” of the great nineteenth- and twentieth-century tragedians.

Conclusion
Nikolai Demidov’s legacy – Russian theater’s best-kept secret – is swiftly spread-
ing and influencing the theater world. In Russia today, the Demidov School is
researched at some of its top-five theatrical schools such as the St Petersburg State
Academy of Theater Arts and the Russian University of Theater Arts (GITIS/
RATI) in Moscow. One of the foremost Russian teachers of acting, Veniamin
Filshtinsky3 (2006: 139), refers to the Demidov School as “pedagogy of the
future.”
In the US, at Florida State University’s Asolo Conservatory for Actor
Training (one of America’s top-ten graduate schools for actors and one of the
top twenty-five in the English-speaking world4), Demidov’s methods have been
utilized extensively since 2009. Several theater schools and institutions in the
US, Canada and Europe have been introduced to the FSU/Asolo Conservatory’s
work with the Demidov technique. In the last five years, the Conservatory’s
experience has been shared with observers and visitors from institutions such
as Peter Brook’s CICT/Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord and the University of
Windsor’s School of Dramatic Art (Ontario, Canada). Lectures and workshops
in the Demidov Technique have been presented by the author of this article at
forums and institutions, including ATHE, Stanford University, the Lee Strasberg
Institute (New York), Rose Bruford College (UK) and the Stanislavski Institute
(Sao Paolo, Brazil.)
The experience of the FSU/Asolo Demidov-based training also inspired in-
terest in Russia. Extensive master classes in the Demidov technique have been
presented by the author at the St Petersburg State Academy of Theater Arts. An
English-language collection of the Demidov heritage titled Becoming an Actor-
Creator will be published by Routledge in August 2015; a similar Russian edi-
tion is in the works.

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 Nikolai Demidov – Russian Theater’s Best-kep Secret

About one hundred years after Stanislavski’s innovations began to bridge

Russian and Western theater, the legacy of his close collaborator and successor
Nikolai Demidov also begins to transcend cultural barriers. Due to its immense
creative potential, it promises to foster international dialog and exchange be-
tween theater scholars, teachers, students and practitioners.

Andrei Malaev-Babel is Associate Professor of Theater and Head of Acting at Florida

State University/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training. His major publications include
The Vakhtangov Sourcebook (Routledge, 2011) and Yevgeny Vakhtangov, the first English-
language study of the Russian theatrical innovator (Routledge, 2012). He is currently
co-editing and translating a collection of Nikolai Demidov’s heritage for Routledge.

Notes
1. Both Demidov and Stanislavski quoted Alexander Pushkin’s well-known aphorism
from his 1930 unfinished article on drama: “The truth of passion, a verisimilitude
of the feelings experienced in supposed circumstances – that is what our intelligence
demands of a dramatic artist.” Demidov in his writings argues that the Stanislavski
System never produced the “truth of passions” characteristic of the art of the nine-
teenth- to early twentieth-century tragic actors, whose subconscious technique in-
spired Demidov’s discoveries.
2. Although the Moscow Art Theater School, headed by Demidov, was not organized
until 1922, Stanislavski is referring to the First Studio of MAT (led subsequently by
Sulerzhitsky and Vakhtangov) as the Moscow Art Theater School.
3. Stanislavski Award Laureate, Chair of the Department of Acting and Professor of the
St Petersburg State Academy of Theater Arts.
4. According to the New York Times, US World & News Report and Hollywood Reporter.

References
Aneichik, Nikolai. 1992. Glavy iz diplomnoi raboty [Chapter from the Thesis]. St
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Demidov, Nikolai. 2004. Tvorcheskoye Naslediye [Creative Heritage]. In 4 vols, Margarita
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Demidov, Nikolai. 2009. Tvorcheskoye Naslediye [Creative Heritage]. In 4 vols, Margarita
Laskina (ed.), vol. 4. St Petersburg: Baltiyskiye Sezony.
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Stanislavski, Konstantin. 1954. Sobraniye sochineniy v vos’mi tomakh [Collected Works in
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